10 May 2009

Last night I arrived home in Carlisle after spending three days down in the Peak District climbing on some grit stone outcrops with University. We left Penrith early Thursday and were climbing at the rightly named Stanage Popular by 2:30 in the afternoon. I managed to get four routes in before we headed back to the campsite somewhere near Bamford to rest in preparation for Friday's climbing fest.

At the top of Stanage Popular.

Black Hawk Hell Crack (S 4a) at Stanage Popular.

However it wasn't really to be. Friday saw some strong winds so we headed off to the sheltered Lawrencfield in the hope of avoiding them. What we didn't manage to avoid was the rain which made an appearence around lunchtime. This cut our day short and instead we retired to the shops of Hathersage to drool over shiny, shiny climbing gear and resist the urge to reach for the wallet and make a purchase.

Great Harry (VS 4c) at Lawrencefield.

Nova (VS 4b) at Lawrencefield.

The last day of our trip was decidedly nicer. The sun had made an appearance in the early evening of the day before meaning that much of the rock had dried out for one final assault on Peak grit stone and it was still shining as we left the campsite for the final time. Burbage South was the destination and some of the boulder problems were taken in before heading up to the infamous grit stone edge to lead some routes besides the likes of Equilibrium (E10 7a), Braille Trail (E7 6c) and Parthian Shot (E9 6c).

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About Me

I am an outdoor enthusiast from the north-west of England who enjoys being in the outdoors. When it's raining I'll be looking to get on the river and when it's not I'll be trying to summit a Lakeland fell or bag another climb. I try to document all my outdoor activities in the Lake District, and further afield, through photographs; another passion of mine.

"Think much and act a little, but when you act, act swiftly and with much conviction."
- Tommy Hilleke

"I could grasp the holds, but not the problem."
- Pat Ament

"I have no sympathy with the ever increasing number who look on the tramp to the foot of the crags as a 'beastly grind.' It will be disastrous to the sport of climbing if its devotees cease to love the mountains as a whole, as the older men did, and wish only for the crags."
- Lehmann J. Oppenheimer (The Heart of Lakeland, 1908)